Waiting
by Saela
Summary: His old instructor's voice reverberated through his head. 'Do not revisit any planet within a hundred year time span after you have left it. The danger of paradoxes is too great.' But without wanting to, Jack keeps going back to the Second World War.


**Disclaimer:** If I owned anything about Torchwood, I wouldn't be posting this here. I would be selling it to the BBC to be able to pay my holiday to Wales.

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WAITING

_London_

Captain Jack Harkness was waiting. In fact he had been waiting for over seven weeks now, without any results. While he knew this shouldn't surprise him, he was still worrying. He loved this time period, and he wouldn't be able to come back to it for fear of paradoxes.

He was aware he had to make some allowances for his pursuers. It wasn't easy to follow a ship through Time and Space and they could arrive with several months of delay. However, even knowing this he couldn't keep calm. His con would fail if they didn't arrive soon, the bomb landing before he could even make the other Time Agents believe he had a Chula Warship in his possession.

Behind him his fellow officers were chatting and laughing, enjoying the short moment of peace before the next attack would strike London. Jack Harkness - as he called himself now - would never admit it to anyone, but they were part of the reason for his admiration for this place. Being a Time Agent had provided him with everything he needed to fit in in all time periods preceding his. Next to electronics, history had been one of the most important subjects at the Time Academy. He knew all the Great Wars humankind had had to endure before reaching the 51st century, from the three World Wars to the Sun Wars, the Milky Way Involvement and the two Universal Wars. The Second World War had struck him because of the cruelty humans already practiced among themselves before even coming into contact with other species. Millions of people had been exterminated and while this seemed insignificant next to the number of civilian casualties of the Cyber War of the 35th century or the fourth Sun War, when one considered the low population of Earth and the countries involved at the time the losses were enormous. The people relaxing in the salon while he watched the stars were some of the ones fighting this cruelty, even if they themselves didn't realize the extent of it Captain respected them and had been tempted to join in with their fight but stopped himself with the excuse that he couldn't influence the past. He was in London to con a couple of Time Agents and nothing else. So he kept his distance from his fellow officers and managed not to get involved. He introduced himself as a RAF officer on leave, waiting for a new assignment and a new squad. Since no one ever found the people he was supposed to serve under, most of the others left him alone. If they thought it strange that he was still there after almost two months they didn't mention it.

This time period was also ideal for cons. No one could predict where the next bomb would fall, and none of his 'clients' could complain if the merchandise was destroyed after the first payment. He always made sure he left before they could demand their money back, but that meant there would be a time span after the con where he couldn't show his face in London and that reduced the number of cons he could pull in the London Blitz. It saddened him a bit, but there were other wars where he could find adequate bombings. He was already keeping careful track of his travels to avoid meeting himself and causing a paradox and it wouldn't be smart to come back to the same planet within fifty years of having been there. No, he had satiated the curiosity his history lessons had awakened and he would leave this place for good after finishing this job. Maybe he could use the First Universal War next. It wasn't confined to one small planet and offered much more opportunities.

In the meantime his clients still had time to arrive before Volcano Day, and London 1941 offered all kinds of enjoyment a man from the 51st century could savour. So Captain Jack Harkness waited.

_xxxxx_

_Cardiff, Torchwood Hub_

"You can't send me to London."

Idris Gruffud was starting to look red in the face, but Jack couldn't allow himself to agree to the proposal. He'd _been _to London during the Second World War, and even if he was careful not to meet himself, the danger of creating a paradox was too big. Not that he'd ever expect Idris to understand that.

"The Germans attacked Poland last night. Our country is heading into a war. Our boys will die with dozens and you, _Captain _Jack Harkness, a man who _can't _die, refuse to help them?"

A vein on his forehead started to pulse and Jack wondered if the man would survive the night without having a heart attack. He took a moment longer to contemplate if he'd care and decided he didn't. Idris had never liked him and the feeling was mutual. The Head of Torchwood Cardiff had always hoped to obtain a post in Torchwood One, where he'd be able to study aliens and alien technology. Instead he was stuck in the position of glorified guard, keeping watch over the Rift and ordered to hand over every interesting piece of equipment to London for further study. He took his frustration out on the immortal under his command. Even though Jack wasn't officially part of Torchwood, but a freelancer, Idris enjoyed sending him into the most dangerous situation and making him do the dirtiest jobs. And now he was unconsciously trying to make him cause a paradox.

"My predecessors left me enough reports about you, Harkness. I know you fought in the trenches, I know you have some impressive fighting skills, and I'm _ordering_ you to put those to use to save your country."

There was only so much Jack could take before seeing red himself. He tried to stay composed.

"Right. Let's clear a couple of things up, Gruffud. First, this is _not _my country, simply a place where I'm passing by. Second, you have absolutely _no _right to give me orders. I'm here of my own free will, to help out when I can, but I'm not and never will be part of Torchwood."

"Not your country, is it? Not many people would still say that after spending close to fifty year in the same city."

"Not my country," Jack affirmed a second time. "I'm just waiting for a friend and then I'm on my way."

Idris narrowed his eyes. "But you need to stay in Cardiff to wait for this friend, don't you?"

Jack looked down. He knew the other man had him right where he wanted. He couldn't afford to make an enemy out of Torchwood Cardiff. It would be hard enough to catch the Doctor when he came through to refuel. Fighting [off] the alien hunters while trying to get to the Tardis would make everything even more difficult.

Meanwhile Idris had caught his small moment of weakness. "You'll help a lot of people if you join the special taskforce One is assembling. Being immortal, you could do things which would kill others."

And Jack knew that. He remembered the First War, when he'd had much higher survival chances than the other men each time they went 'over the top'. He'd been able to sneak to enemy lines and blow their headquarters up, making the crossing of no men's land much easier for his own boys. He was aware his presence had made a lot of difference for them. He owed it to them to go to war again. He knew he could help. However, he still refused to risk a paradox or to submit to Idris' wishes.

"I won't go to London," he spoke slowly, weighing his words carefully, "but I will fight. The Air force has a pretty high dead rate. I believe the average lifespan of their pilots is six weeks." His statistics dated from the First War, but he didn't think a man like Gruffud, who planned to stay high and dry in Cardiff for the rest of the war (which he still believed would never reach the British Isles), knew anything about the RAF. "If I can fly a one-man airplane, no-one would realize I revive after my plane crashes, they'll suppose I was lucky and survived." It wasn't exactly true, since no-one would ever believe someone could survive his plane exploding in mid-air, but it was as good an argument as any. "If you can get me in without questions, I'll go."

He could see the Head liked the idea, but refused to give in easily to the Captain he considered to be his archenemy.

"How do I know you won't make a run for it after landing behind enemy lines?"

Jack sighed. "You just reminded me of the fact that I need to stay in Cardiff. Won't it kind of defeat the point if I run away while I'm trying to stay here?" Never mind that he had no intention of falling in German hands. He knew several of their scientists had conducted experiments in the camps, going as far as vivisection and examining how long it took for a human body to dissolve in a vat of acid. He did _not_ want to provide them with an immortal to play with.

"You don't even exist. You don't have any identification papers. How do you plan to get into the army?" Idris was grasping at straws now. It was clear the idea of Jack in a job with low survival rates (even lower than Torchwood's) tempted him, but he didn't want to show it.

"That's where you come in," Jack answered. "You can get me forged papers in the name of James Harper. I know you've got contacts which can get me into the Air force without too many questions. And let's not forget you'll be able to relish in my absence for a couple of…" He was going to say 'years', but people still believed the War would be over in a matter of months. He couldn't disclose his knowledge of the future. Gruffud would have a field day if he found out so much about him. "… for some time, knowing that I won't come through it unscathed."

"James Harper? Afraid of using your own name?" It wasn't his own name, but that was another thing he wouldn't tell the Head. He couldn't enter the RAF using the name of one of their officers, because it would lead to questions he wasn't ready to answer.

The important thing was that Idris had stopped offering objections. That meant he'd agree after a few days of mulling it over. Jack would have his way into the Air Force and he'd go back to flying. Coming from an age where space travelling had been developing for millennia, being chained to the ground was one of the things he'd regretted most about the period where he'd landed. It was a close third after discovering that the 19th century was almost the equivalent of the sexual dark ages and that he'd have to wait more than a century for the Doctor. He missed the Warship he'd stolen from a Fryxan in the 28th century, but which he'd sacrificed to [cancel out] the mistakes he'd made when he'd caused the ambulance to crash on earth.

He knew the Doctor didn't approve of fighting, but this time the circumstances were beyond his control. When he was still a cadet, he'd dreamt of participating in this war and now the choice had been taken from him. After all he had to do _something_ while he waited for the Time Lord to show up. He turned around and didn't bother to hide the little spring in his steps when he left Gruffud's office and moved towards the cog door.

"Hey, I'm not done with you, Harkness!"

The Head was calling after him, but Jack ignored him. He'd be back in a few days, when the Welshman had had the time to decide he liked his request and had found a way to make it seem as if he'd come up with it himself. After all, when a man has a century, he can certainly spend a couple of days longer waiting.

_xxxxx_

_Cardiff, Ritz Hotel_

He was pouring all the acting abilities he'd picked up over the years into seeming unconcerned. He assured Tosh he would take care of her and everything would be all right, but inside he was raging. His old instructor's voice reverberated through his head. _Never revisit a place within a fifty years time period. Even if no one remembers you enough to realize you haven't aged the same way they have, the danger of paradoxes is too great. You can't take too many precautions. To be absolutely certain, do not revisit any planet within a hundred year time span after you have left it, and note every voyage meticulously in your log. _

No one had ever followed all those recommendations to the letter. Many Agents tended to have a favourite planet or period and revisited those often, but even the most rule ignoring men knew to keep a few years between their appearances in a single place. The Time Academy might have failed to make them less selfish or hard, but it had put the fear of paradoxes into them. Even the Doctor, who kept coming back to 20th and 21st century Earth, knew to do so more or less chronologically and the Tardis kept track of his journeys even when the Doctor seemed to forget.

Jack had difficulties trying to keep himself from panicking. Last time he'd been on a planet twice at the same time he'd had fifty years to get used to the idea and to devise a plan before it happened. One of him (and didn't that sound strange?) had been in London, waiting for pursuers he believed to be Time Agents. The other him had been based in Cardiff, but spent most of his time doing secret reconnaissance above France. He'd made sure to crash in enemy territory a few days before his younger and mortal version would arrive on earth and had spent eight weeks painstakingly trying to keep hidden while he made his way back as fast as he could, but not _too_ fast because he couldn't meet himself.

He closed his eyes and leant his head against the wall for support. Tosh was outside, looking for a hiding place for her equations. He had no idea how the team would ever find a piece of paper like that, or how it could possibly remain in one place for more than sixty years. One day between 1941 and 2007, someone would find it and throw it away and they would be stuck in the Second World War. It occurred to him they'd need to find a place to stay, but he didn't dare to give up hope yet. If he left the Ritz, it would make the situation real and he would have to make decisions. Now he could still tell himself Toshiko's efforts would be worthwhile.

When they had run outside, looking for the car, he'd seen today's date on a poster on the wall. He knew his youngest self stayed in London for all his time on Earth and he still had a couple of months before his arrival, but he had absolutely no idea where the second version of him had been on the twentieth of January 1941. What if right now he was walking around in Cardiff? What if he walked in here?

No, he had to calm down. Despite changing his name as a precaution before entering the Air force, he had never met the real Captain Harkness. That meant his other self wouldn't enter the Ritz as long as Harkness was still there. However, tomorrow the man would die and he'd lose that small pocket of safety. He needed to believe in Tosh, because he didn't know what he'd do otherwise. He wasn't ready to wait another sixty years before the Doctor would appear. Moreover, he'd probably have to spend those sixty years hiding out in Africa, because that was the only place on earth where he was sure he would not meet his past self.

Trying to distract himself, Jack followed Captain Harkness around. It was sad, knowing the other would be dead tomorrow, but he had walked around with this man's name for more than a century and wanted to get to know him. In the end it was the Captain who started talking to him.

"71st squad, are you? They're quite secretive about themselves. I've had a few friends transferring there. They never wanted to tell me what they'd done or where they'd been."

Jack laughed. "It's not that special. We're less impressive than we like to think."

That earned him a smile from his companion. "I don't know about that. I've overheard some rumours. Apparently you were involved in those attacks on Paris last month. I'd have loved to be there with you."

"Who knows? Maybe you'll join us one day." He wouldn't, Jack knew, but he would definitely have fit in with the guys.

"Maybe." The Captain's laugh was disbelieving, but slightly wistful. "They headhunt their people, so I'll just have to wait until they notice me."

"And maybe they did tonight, Captain." He didn't want to get the other man's hopes up, not really, but if this would be his last night, he could just as well spend it dreaming about a different future.

"Maybe… What would you say if I offered you a drink, Captain Harper?"

"Lead on, Captain Harkness, I'd be delighted to accept it."

So the man who'd been called Jack for over a century acted unconcerned, flirted with Captain Jack Harkness and waited.

_xxxxx_

_Cardiff, Torchwood Hub, Morgue_

When Jack woke up and saw Alice Guppy standing over him, he had a full-blown panic attack.

Or rather, when Jack gasped for breath as he'd done countless times in the last two thousand years - and realized that he actually found breath and could breathe and lived – and then saw Alice Guppy standing over him, it took him a few minutes to realize the implications. When he did, he had a full-scale panic attack, as a result of which Alice had to sedate him. He woke up again two days later, this time to see Emily Holroyd, and he wasn't much better off. It took several days for him to calm down enough to talk to them, but he refused to explain why they had found him buried under Bute Park while he was on assignment to Amlwch in North Wales, and wasn't expected back for weeks.

Although he still didn't understand all the theory behind Bad Wolf bringing him back to life, he was thankful of the mechanics. There were a few facts he had been able to establish for certain over the years. The more difficult a death had been and the closer the deaths had been to each other, the longer it took him to wake up. That had definitely been helpful in the last millennia. He suspected there had been several years between the last few deaths. He had been lying in the Hub for two weeks before coming back to life. The second certainty that he'd established was that if one death followed directly upon another, he didn't remember dying a second time. He'd probably died a lot more than he remembered during the years he was buried, but he only recalled those early ones, where he'd still fought, and tried to get out and couldn't and... He suspected that after some time he must have started breathing in earth, and the earth in his lungs had quickened the following deaths, which had caused them to be so close to each other that he wasn't conscious of dying anymore.

Even if he had suffered less than he suspected Grey had hoped, he was aware how close he'd come to the edge of insanity. He still had nightmares every night and was afraid to go to sleep because he knew he'd wake up choking. It was becoming more difficult to stay in the Hub, because every time he realized that he was below the surface, the walls started to close in on him. For all that, the stifling memories of being buried were pushed to the side by the fear of paradoxes, which had enfolded him when he first saw Alice Guppy. His frail nerves couldn't handle the idea of avoiding himself for a century. And in those moments where he could bring himself to forget the fear, he was taken up by thoughts of his team. He might be nineteen centuries older, but he'd been dead for most of that time, and he still vividly remembered what had been happening when he left the 21st century. He needed to find a way to help him, and refused to wait.

Jack ended up begging Torchwood to put him in a cryogenic unit and freeze him. It was the only solution he saw against the paradox and it would allow him to help his team. He tried to ignore the fact that he would yet again end up in a small space. Right then, he needed his team and he'd do anything for them.

Frozen in the heart of the Institute he'd given so many years of his life to, Captain Jack Harkness waited.

* * *

_**AN: This is the first fanfic I ever finished and posted. I'm begging you all to take a moment to review and tell me what you thought of it. If you don't know what to say, maybe you can think about one or more of the following questions:  
-English is not my first language, did you notice this when you were reading? Where there any sentences which didn't seem natural to you as a native speaker? Any words which weren't used in the right context?  
**__**-What did you think of the plot? Is this something you've ever wondered about?  
**__**-What did you think about the description of the situation? Did it become long-winded at any point?  
-Was there anything in Jack's behaviour or thought which deviated from the way **_**you _think Captain Jack should act or think?  
-Did the dialogues sound natural, or were they a bit forced? _**

_**And if you don't want to reflect on those things, just tell me: was it any good or should I just stop trying?**_

_**I'd be eternally grateful if you told me what you think. Reviewers get lots of virtual cookies send through the World Wide Web!**_


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